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Updated: Oct 11, 2025
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Prenatal Nicotine or Cannabis Exposure and Offspring Neurobehavioral Outcomes
Marcela C Smid1, Torri D Metz, Gwen A McMillin
1Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, Utah, University of Texas-Southwestern, Dallas, Texas, Columbia University, New York, New York, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, Texas, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, University of Texas-Houston, Houston, Texas, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Department of Pathology, University of Utah Health and ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, Utah; the George Washington University Biostatistics Center, Washington, DC; and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland.
Objective:
To study the association between nicotine or cannabis metabolite presence in maternal urine and child neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Methods:
We conducted a secondary analysis of two parallel multicenter randomized controlled trials of treatment for hypothyroxinemia or subclinical hypothyroidism among pregnant individuals enrolled at 8-20 weeks of gestation. All maternal-child dyads with a maternal urine sample at enrollment and child neurodevelopmental testing were included (N=1,197). Exposure was urine samples positive for nicotine (cotinine) or cannabis 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol [THC-COOH]) or both metabolites. Primary outcome was child IQ at 60 months. Secondary outcomes included cognitive, motor and language, attention, behavioral and social competency, and differential skills assessments at 12, 24, 36, and 48 months. Quantile regression analysis was performed with confounder adjustment.
Results:
Of 1,197 pregnant individuals, 99 (8.3%) had positive cotinine samples and 47 (3.9%) had positive THC-COOH samples; 33 (2.8%) were positive for both. Groups differed in self-reported race and ethnicity, education, marital status, insurance, and thyroid status. Median IQ was similar between cotinine-exposed and -unexposed children (90 vs 95, adjusted difference in medians -2.47, 95% CI -6.22 to 1.29) and THC-COOH-exposed and -unexposed children (89 vs 95, adjusted difference in medians -1.35, 95% CI -7.76 to 5.05). In secondary outcome analysis, children with THC-COOH exposure compared with those unexposed had higher attention scores at 48 months of age (57 vs 49, adjusted difference in medians 6.0, 95% CI 1.11-10.89).
Conclusions:
Neither prenatal nicotine nor cannabis exposure was associated with a difference in IQ. Cannabis exposure was associated with worse attention scores in early childhood. Longitudinal studies assessing associations between child neurodevelopmental outcomes and prenatal nicotine and cannabis exposure with a focus on timing and quantity of exposure are needed.
Clinical Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00388297.
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